World number one Andy Murray has confessed that the manner of his last-16 defeat to Borna Coric at the Madrid Open has left him feeling 'concerned and disappointed'.
The 29-year-old's slow start to the clay-court season continued on Thursday afternoon as he went down 6-3 6-3 to youngster Coric.
Murray has also exited the Monte Carlo Masters prior to the quarter-final stage this year and suffered defeat in the semi-finals of the Barcelona Open, but he insists that confidence is not an issue heading into this month's French Open.
"I definitely think I need to be concerned about today," BBC Sport quotes him as saying. "It's not always the worst thing losing a match, but it's sometimes the manner of how you lose the match which can be concerning or disappointing.
"I was just making lots of mistakes early in the rallies and trying to end points very quickly at the beginning, and the errors just kept piling up. I didn't feel that was down to confidence - I just wasn't focusing as well as I needed to on each point.
"I made a lot of unforced errors and I also didn't find any way to make it a more competitive match, so that's the most disappointing thing for me. You can lose matches sometimes, but the manner of today's loss was disappointing."
Murray, who has won 15 of his 20 matches so far in 2017, is back in action next week at the Italian Open.
Daniel Lewis
